World Story Bank

Buying a Dream Six chiefs rule a single village, and the eldest holds the rest in fear. One night he sets them a strange challenge: dream, and he will buy the finest dream for a high price. But it is the youngest chief — the one who wants nothing from him — who finds himself in real danger when his turn comes, and who discovers that the smallest, humblest things can carry the greatest power. A tra...

The Mystic Garden A just king sends three young men of royal blood out into the world to earn their station, and their voyage brings them to an island garden of extraordinary beauty — where they are welcomed, but given three curious warnings. Each youth finds something different to love among the fruit, the treasures and the order of the place. And when the summons comes to leave, what each chose...

The Star Wife A young warrior, hunting where he has never been before, comes upon a worn circle in the grass — and from the sky descends a basket of dancing women, one of them lovelier than all the rest. He loses his heart in an instant, but winning her, and keeping her, will ask far more of him than cunning. This is a tale of love that reaches between the Earth and the stars, and of what a person...

The Tortoise & the Deer When the tortoise challenges the swift-footed deer to a race along the river, the deer can hardly believe his luck — for surely no creature so slow could ever outrun him. But the tortoise has spent the evening before the race making some very particular arrangements among his relations. A tale of speed outwitted by wit, told with mischief and a smile. A traditional tale...

The Serpent-Wife A solitary labourer, happiest wandering the woods alone, meets a great serpent who offers him strange instructions — and following them brings him a beautiful wife and a life of unaccountable good fortune. But she asks one thing of him, a single word he must never speak. A haunting tale of a gift freely given, a warning unheeded, and the price of a careless tongue. A traditional t...

How the Toad Got His Bruises Long ago, the story goes, the toad had smooth and handsome skin — and never missed a party, however far he had to travel. So when an invitation arrives to a feast in the sky, the toad is determined to attend, even if the journey looks quite impossible for a creature so slow. With a borrowed violin and a great deal of cheek, he sets about getting there. A merry "just-so...

The Singing Bird of Heaven The Sun Goddess of High Heaven means to send her August Child to rule the troubled Land of Reed Plains below — but first the land must be made calm, and one by one the messengers she sends fail to return. When at last a young prince descends, glory shining from his garments, he too finds the earth has a pull of its own. So Heaven sends its most beloved messenger of all:...

The Magic Fiddle Seven brothers and the sister who keeps their house — until their jealous wives make a secret bargain with a spirit, and one day at the water's edge something terrible befalls the girl. But hers is not a tale that ends at the water. What follows is a strange and beautiful journey of transformation, through bamboo and music and patient waiting, toward a reckoning of its own. A haun...

The Three Heads of the Well In the days before King Arthur, the gentle daughter of the King of Colchester finds her father remarried to a cruel and envious queen, and chooses to leave the court to seek her fortune. On the road she meets an old man, a thorny hedge, and a well from which three golden heads rise singing — and how she treats them will shape all that follows. When her spiteful step-sis...

The Nsasak Bird & the Odudu Bird The King of Calabar makes a promise: whichever bird can endure hunger the longest will be made a chief. The great Odudu bird, far larger than his small friend the Nsasak, is certain of victory and boldly offers to fast for seven days, each sealed inside a house of his own. But the tiny Nsasak bird has been thinking rather harder about the problem. A sly tale of...

Many Wise Fools On a spring picnic in a beautiful valley, hunting purple violets by an old well, a young noblewoman named O Shingé is saved from grave danger by a handsome stranger — a doctor who tends to her and then vanishes into the mist without giving his name. Days later she takes to her bed with a sickness no physician can name, and only her faithful servant understands its true cause. But O...

The Two Brothers Two brothers set out to seek their fortune, each carrying ten loaves of bread — but when the first has cunningly eaten his way through the second's share, he abandons his penniless brother on the road. Alone, the cast-off brother seeks shelter for the night in a lonely forest mill, where the miller dares not stay after dark. There, hidden and trembling, he overhears three wild bea...

The Coming of People – A Long Time Ago In the time before writing, when stories were the only way to carry what people knew, the Inuit told of how the world began: how the earth fell from the sky, and how the first children rose from beneath the willow leaves. In those days, it is said, there was no sun and no death — until two old women fell to talking, and what they chose between them shaped the...

The Wonderful Hair A father so poor he despairs of feeding his many children is visited in a dream and sent on a strange errand: to a fountain at the head of a stream, where a maiden bright as the sun sits embroidering, her hair falling down her back. He is warned to stay silent whatever she asks, to find among her tresses a single hair red as blood, and — should she give chase — exactly what to c...

The Sugar-Candy House Deep in a wood, a brother and sister stumble on a marvellous discovery: a little pink cottage built entirely of sugar-candy, just begging to be nibbled. But the house belongs to an old wolf named Garon — lame in one leg, yet as fierce as ever — and he is not best pleased to find pieces of his roof going missing. For a day or two the children fool him with a cheeky rhyme, but...

The Monkey's Fiddle Driven from his hungry homeland to seek work among strangers, Monkey earns a marvellous reward: a bow and arrow that never miss, and a fiddle that forces all who hear it to dance. But back home his good fortune draws envy — first from Wolf, then from the cunning Jackal — and before long Monkey finds himself hauled before the court of Lion and Tiger on a false charge, with the s...

The Perfidious Vizier A prince sets out across the desert to claim his promised bride, escorted by his father's trusted vizier and a thousand horsemen. But the vizier has been bought by a jealous rival, and he leads the prince to a hidden desert spring of fearful power — one whose waters work a transformation that leaves the young man stranded in despair, far from home and hope. Then, on the fourt...

The Seal-Catcher's Adventure On the wild northern coast near John o' Groats, a fisherman makes a good living hunting seals for their valuable skins — never suspecting that the seals are no ordinary beasts. One evening a mysterious stranger arrives with the promise of a fine deal, and carries him off on a swift horse to a clifftop high above the sea, where the true nature of the errand is suddenly...

Van Wempel's Goose Nicholas Van Wempel of Flatbush — fat, rich, and thoroughly henpecked — is sent out one New Year's Eve with ten shillings and the strictest instructions: fetch the goose, and on no account stop at the tavern. Needless to say, things do not go to plan. A muttered tavern rumour of pirate gold buried out on the frozen marshes sends poor Nicholas off on a midnight treasure-hunt, and...

The Talkative Tortoise A king of Benares cannot stop talking — he leaves no one else a moment to speak — and his wise adviser, who is the Buddha in an earlier life, searches for a gentle way to cure him of it. The chance arrives in the shape of a tortoise, who strikes up a friendship with two wild ducks and is offered a journey to a beautiful far-off mountain, on one simple condition: that he hold...

The Cunning Weasel When the weasel demands a most extraordinary swaddling-cloth for her newborn — nothing less than the skin of an elephant — her bewildered husband thinks she has taken leave of her senses. But the weasel has a plan, and she sets it in motion with a few quiet, well-chosen words to a worm, a hen, a cat, a dog, and a lion in turn. A delicious tale from the Nubian tradition, of patie...

The Tortoise with the Pretty Daughter A powerful king, displeased that his son scorns all fifty of the wives chosen for him, makes a terrible law: any girl found more beautiful than the prince's wives shall be killed, along with her mother and father. So when the wise old tortoise and his wife have a daughter of rare beauty, they live in dread of the day she might catch the prince's eye. And then,...